The Montreal Canadiens have spent the last two seasons collecting individual hardware, and the list could grow again in 2026-27. Nick Suzuki took home the Selke Trophy this past season, while Cole Caufield won the Lady Byng Trophy, and Lane Hutson grabbed the Calder Trophy the year before.
Suzuki also has a real shot to make it two Selkes in a row. If he pulls it off, he’d be following the same path as Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers and Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins, the two players who won the award in back-to-back seasons before him.
But Suzuki isn’t the only Canadien with a legitimate trophy case in sight. Four other players stand out as possible award winners next season.
Cole Caufield is the obvious name to circle for the Rocket Richard Trophy. He came within reach of becoming the first Canadiens player to win the award named after Maurice “Rocket” Richard, finishing with 51 goals.
That still wasn’t enough, though, because Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon edged him out with two more. Caufield’s scoring has climbed year by year, from 23 goals in 2021-22 to 37 in 2024-25, and then all the way to 51 last season.
The big leap came with a shooting percentage jump to 19.8%. If he can stay near that 20% mark, he’ll have a strong case to lead the league in goals.
Lane Hutson is in the mix for the Norris Trophy after backing up his Calder-winning rookie year with an even stronger season. He posted 78 points and a plus-36 rating, after putting up 66 points as a rookie.
He did get some Norris votes and finished sixth, but he probably deserved more attention than that. The problem, of course, is that the defenseman field is loaded.
Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin, Zach Werenski, Moritz Seider and Quinn Hughes are all in the mix too. Still, Hutson made his argument last season, and if he repeats that level or improves on it, he could become the first Canadien to win the Norris since P.K.
Subban in 2013.
The goalie situation is where things get interesting. Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler are grouped together because it’s hard to see both winning their awards, but if one of them handles the bulk of the starts, the conversation changes fast.
Dobes seized the starting job in the middle of the season and stayed excellent from there through the playoffs. He finished fourth in voting for the Calder Trophy, and Montreal rewarded him with a three-year extension this summer.
He should enter the season as the starter.
Fowler, though, is the kind of prospect that keeps the whole picture unsettled. Montreal may have the best goalie prospect in the NHL, and he made his NHL debut last season.
In that brief run, he went 9-6-2 with a .908 save percentage and a 2.43 goals-against average. If Dobes keeps the net all season and performs the way he did in the playoffs, he could work his way into Vezina Trophy contention.
If not, Fowler could be the one collecting a trophy at season’s end, which would give the Canadiens a chance to win the Calder Trophy for the second time in three seasons.
For Montreal, the bigger picture is simple: the club is trying to reach the playoffs for a third straight season. If these award races break the Canadiens’ way, that goal gets a lot more realistic.
In Other News...
Canadiens Prospects Just Gave Fans Three New Reasons To Pay Attention
The Canadiens NCAA pipeline keeps giving the organization more to track as another college season approaches, and the latest group of prospects brings a little bit of everything. Michael Hage is headed back to Michigan, LJ Mooney is coming off a strong freshman year at Minnesota, and Timofei Runtso is moving into the college game after a productive WHL run. For a club still trying to build out its future, those are the kinds of names that can quietly start shaping the conversation around what comes next.
Mooney is the one who already looks closest to forcing a decision, since his play at Minnesota has put him on the radar for a possible entry-level contract if he keeps trending up. Hages return gives Montreal another important look at a player whose development path has already been tested, while Runtso adds another fresh layer of intrigue once he settles in at Miami. The Canadiens do not need all of these prospects to hit at once, but they do need some of them to keep moving, and this fall should tell the team a lot about which ones are ready to push forward. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Dach Just Put A Canadiens Bounce-Back Season Back In Focus
Kirby Dach is back in Brossard as the Canadiens continue their lead-up to training camp, and his return puts a familiar offseason storyline back at the center of Montreals plans. After a limited and disappointing last season, the forward heads into the new year with a new contract in place as a restricted free agent, and his presence at the teams training base arrives as several teammates are already getting work in before camp officially opens.
The bigger question around Dach remains the same one that followed him through the spring: whether the flashes he showed in the playoffs can carry into a full bounce-back season. Montreal has spent much of the summer talking about growth, health and internal improvement, and Dach sits right in the middle of that conversation as one of the players whose next step could shape the teams outlook. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Goalie Situation Suddenly Hinges On Winnipegs Next Move
The Canadiens goaltending picture is suddenly tied to a bigger conversation out in Winnipeg, where any serious trade talk involving Connor Hellebuyck could ripple across the market and put Montreal in a spot it may have to address before long. Samuel Montembeault sits at the center of that uncertainty, with the current chatter suggesting the Canadiens could be watching the deadline landscape closely rather than treating their crease as settled.
Montembeaults future is already a talking point because a move before the deadline has been viewed as plausible, and the uncertainty only grows if the Jets decide to shift course. If Winnipeg starts asking around on Montreals goalie, the discussion could widen quickly, but for now it remains all speculation and there have been no confirmed transactions to report. [Read more 🡒]